re: I'm gonna get a lot of flak for asking, but is DVH a bad player developer?

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Seems that guys continually come in and don't get much better than their first season on the hill and sometimes even get worse.

Even the guys that were really good didn't necessarily get better, they just stayed good.

Kerstad got better for sure, but he's the exception.

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Zack Cox hit .266 as a freshman, .903 OPS, and a strikeout to walk ratio of 3.25. Cox hit .429 as a sophomore with a 1.11 OPS, and a strikeout/walk ratio of 1.09. He got better.

Bret Eibner hit .298 as a freshman, .902 OPS, and a strikeout/walk ratio of 1.64. Eibner struggled as a sophomore (.231 average, .885 OPS, 1.93 K/BB), but improved tremendously as a junior. In 2010 he hit .333, 1.164 OPS, with a strikeout/walk ratio of 1.41.

Benintendi hit .276 as a freshman, .701 OPS, and a strikeout/walk ratio of .833. He hit .376 as a sophomore with a 1.205 OPS, and a strikeout/walk ratio of 0.64. Power numbers went off the charts. He got better.

Kjerstad and Martin had incredible freshman seasons and their averages went down in 2019 (Kjerstad not by much), but both improved power numbers and total bases. Kjerstad was hitting .448 with an OPS of 1.304 when the season was canceled in 2020. It's a shame he didn't get to finish the season he was having. Opponents seemed to figure out Martin struggled with sliders away.

Cayden Wallace hit .279 as a freshman, .869 OPS, and a strikeout/walk ratio of 2.10. He's currently hitting .304 with a .899 OPS, and a strikeout/walk ratio of 1.19. He has gotten better. Wallace's HR numbers are down this year, but he's already matched the number of doubles he hit last year. Might not take much for doubles to become homer runs in a hurry.

Battles hit .269 last year with a .778 OPS, and a strikeout/walk ratio of 1.69. He's currently hitting .304 with a .887 OPS, and a strikeout/walk ratio of 2.2. He has improved with the exception of strikeout/walks.

I'd say there's plenty of development happening.

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I think, much like Frank Broyles with the 69 Shootout, DVH has not (and will not) get over that CWS loss to Oregon State

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are you into Zodiacs and all that?

great post

and sometimes, even when you're a great consistent hitter who can at least place bat on ball in the worst of times, sometimes you come up against a pitcher who simply pitches his best collection of 20 different 5-minute intervals of his life, and one of them was against you batting

strike out

you walk away shaking your head because you've never swung and missed like what you just did

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In his last 10 seasons, he only finished above .500 in conference twice. Granted, the SEC is a different monster than the SWC in baseball. But, only twice above .500 in 10 seasons? His overall record during those 10 seasons wasn't too sporty either. General feeling though, is yes.

He is the foundation of Hog baseball though, and to that, he deserves all of the credit in the world.

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It’s laughable to say DeBriyn stayed too long.

Not only did DeBriyn quite literally create Hog baseball from nothing, but he guided also us into the SEC and adapted our program to a much tougher conference in terms of baseball talent, coaching, fan and financial support, etc. We’d have killed for that transitional stability in football given what we went through with the likes of Crowe, et al.

Not only that, but he also was the heart and soul behind getting Baum built and not simply renovating George Cole Field, which many wanted to do. Go listen to the interview Bo Mattingly had with him on his podcast a few years ago about the process of building Hog baseball. They used to play on shitty fields at the fairgrounds and practice in Lot 56.

He came into the SEC, had an adjustment period, and won an SEC title within 8 years. If we’d have retired him before that SEC title, we wouldn’t have gotten DVH as his successor.

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Maybe he hasn’t gotten over it personally, but it hasn’t affected our on-field performance.

The Big Shootout affected Broyles deeply. He was never the same after that loss, and his teams fell off to winning 5 and 6 games a year after the 1970 season. With the exception of 1975, his last 5 years were fairly mediocre by comparison.

Conversely, Van Horn went back to the CWS the very next season, and we just had the greatest regular season in the history of Arkansas baseball last year and were a home run away from going back to Omaha. It would’ve been interesting to see how that 2020 season would’ve played out if it hadn’t been canceled.

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Definitely a fair response. It hasnt affected him on the field across the board, but I think its one of those things that may rear its head during crunch time. That "Here we go again" mentality can be hard to shed.

But I was thinking more on a personal level. Should have clarified. Im definitely still not over it.

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It looked like DVH proved some critics wrong that the Oregon St. loss made him washed up.

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Just to clarify (even if this wasnt directed at me): I never said DVH was washed up. Definitely a Top5 coach nationally. Im not looking for him to retire or anything of the sort. Just think that the OSU loss may haunt him and keep him from "getting over the hump." Hopefully he will get the monkey off his back.

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Im definitely still not over it.

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Neither am I.